The Stories Around Bruce Willis' Last Few Movies Are Really Sad
ICYMI, Bruce Willis retired from acting after being diagnosed with Aphasia, a condition that affects your ability to communicate. Today, LAT released this article which detailed the last few years for Willis. He had made a TON bunch of low-quality, low-budget movies that lead to him getting his own category in the Razzies this year. Behind all of them is a story, and most of them are pretty sad.
In interviews with The Times this month, nearly two dozen people who were on set with the actor expressed concern about Willis’ well-being.
These individuals questioned whether the actor was fully aware of his surroundings on set, where he was often paid $2 million for two days of work, according to documents viewed by The Times. Filmmakers described heart-wrenching scenes as the beloved “Pulp Fiction” star grappled with his loss of mental acuity and an inability to remember his dialogue. An actor who traveled with Willis would feed the star his lines through an earpiece, known in the industry as an “earwig,” according to several sources. Most action scenes, particularly those that involved choreographed gunfire, were filmed using a body double as a substitute for Willis.
In one alleged incident two years ago on a Cincinnati set of the movie “Hard Kill,” Willis unexpectedly fired a gun loaded with a blank on the wrong cue
“After the first day of working with Bruce, I could see it firsthand and I realized that there was a bigger issue at stake here and why I had been asked to shorten his lines,” Burns said. On that film, Burns was tasked with compressing all of Willis’ scenes — about 25 pages of dialogue — into one day of filming, which he said was exceedingly difficult.
Willis’ longtime management team — including a powerhouse group of agents at the Creative Artists Agency — made sure that his film shoots were limited to two days. The actor’s contracts stipulated that he was not to work more than eight hours a day, but he often stayed for only four, according to production sources
Filmmakers proceeded to quickly film the actor’s parts, even as Willis questioned where he was: “I know why you’re here, and I know why you’re here, but why am I here?” two crew members said he asked aloud.
“He just looked so lost, and he would say, ‘I’ll do my best.’ He always tried his best,” Terri Martin, the production supervisor on “White Elephant,” said Wednesday.
Reading these made me feel bad because I was definitly among those poking fun at what Red Letter Media called the "Bruce Willis Fake Movie Factory". Clearly, there was a lot more happening under the hood than any of us realized. Shoutout to Willis, who was able to power through what sounds like a debilitating disease to make a ton of action movies even at the age of 67. Here are my top movies from one of Hollywood's best everyman action stars.
I'm going to go watch 12 Monkeys tonight thank you very much.